Caspio, Inc. is the leading provider of custom cloud solutions in the United States. The company’s cloud storage and App development platform lets IT professionals create their own cloud applications to match the exact needs of their businesses without the need for any coding experience.

The company’s software has been widely adopted throughout U.S industry, although the strict data security controls demanded by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996) have prevented the healthcare industry from adopting its software.

HIPAA places a number of restrictions on healthcare providers to ensure electronic Protected Health Information is secured and unauthorized access is prevented. In order to comply with HIPAA data privacy and security regulations, healthcare organizations must ensure that the appropriate technical, physical and administrative safeguards are put in place to protect ePHI.

The same rules also apply to all business associates of HIPAA covered entities and any service provider requiring access to PHI. This extends to companies offering cloud based IT solutions for HIPAA-covered entities and providers of software applications and other IT services.

Caspio Releases HIPAA-Compliant Version of its Cloud Application Platform

Developing cloud based applications that comply with all HIPAA regulations involves considerable technical resources which many healthcare organizations lack. However, Caspio Enterprise allows apps to be developed without the need for coding, making the development of cloud based IT solutions a relatively quick and simple process.

The company has now developed and released a new HIPAA-compliant version of its App development platform which now allows healthcare organizations to develop cloud based applications without employing a team of software programmers.

The platform allows cloud-based applications to be quickly developed for use in patient website information portals, clinical trial databases, health insurance exchanges and applications to streamline practice and health information management systems.

The software features an easy-to-use point and click application builder to quickly develop applications which can be seamlessly integrated into existing website and content management systems, while ensuring all data is secured and protected from unauthorized access. The platform can run apps as well as host data and can be used to create online forms and surveys, produce reports and charts, with many additional extensions to incorporate geocoding, SEO data publishing, payment integration and a host of data input and export facilities.

HIPAA Compliance Obstacles Removed from Cloud App Development

According to Caspio CEO, Frank Zamani, “The healthcare market presents a tremendous challenge to IT departments and application developers who must ensure their solutions are fully compliant with the industry’s strict regulatory requirements.”

The new HIPAA-compliant version of its software will allow healthcare organizations to take full advantage of the company’s popular app development platform safe in the knowledge that all processes comply with HIPAA privacy and data security regulations.

“Caspio’s new HIPAA-compliant platform opens a world of possibilities for healthcare practitioners, IT professionals, line-of-business managers, developers, and consultants. With Caspio HIPAA Enterprise, compliance is no longer an obstacle; and the rapid development platform allows our customers and partners to expand their businesses by quickly creating custom healthcare applications to their exact specifications.”

The company had already devised its software to offer a particularly robust range of security features, although in order to make its platform HIPAA-compliant it needed to upgrade its Platform-as-a-Service and add a number of additional safeguards, policies and procedures to ensure that ePHI would be fully protected. These additional security features include:

A Fully HIPAA-Compliant infrastructure which keeps customer accounts segregated and allows HIPAA-compliant apps to be used that run on Amazon Web Services.

Data is encrypted at rest and in transit to prevent unauthorized access and disclosure of ePHI

Addition of audit logs and trails – HIPAA compliance is not just about maintaining security; all efforts must be documented and logs made available for compliance audits. Full access logging has been incorporated with system wide audit logs are recorded and encrypted in a separate environment.

Business Associate Agreements are now maintained with vendors and a separate BAA will be provided to all HIPAA-covered entities wishing to adopt the new platform for development.

The results of the recent IDC CloudTrack Survey indicate that half of the healthcare organizations surveyed plan to integrate some form of cloud-based IT solution over the course of the year. Caspio’s new HIPAA-compliant application development platform makes this as easy as possible and takes the pain out of developing healthcare applications.

About HIPAA Journal

HIPAA Journal provides the most comprehensive coverage of HIPAA news anywhere online, in addition to independent advice about HIPAA compliance and the best practices to adopt to avoid data breaches, HIPAA violations and regulatory fines. HIPAA Journal's goal is to assist HIPAA-covered entities achieve and maintain compliance with state and federal regulations governing the use, storage and disclosure of PHI and PII.